webbylu87 wrote:As an update, I got confirmation from Financial Aid that no new scholarships will be awarded after April 1st which means that those with scholarship money who don't deposit won't have their money reallocated to other nominated applicants.

So... no partial scholarships for anyone?

Isn't this part of the whole what-the-financial-aid-office-says vs. what-Collins-Byrd-says thing? If this is actually true I am surprised and pretty disappointed with Iowa's allocation of merit aid.

That was my interpretation. I asked explicitly whether or not what people were told by Collins Byrd was correct or whether what financial aid told me was correct and she went ahead and said exactly what I told you. Someone could call Admissions to double check. But yes, I totally agree. I am very disappointed with Iowa's allocation of merit money this year. Only full-rides? I mean really.

+10000. I feel like I've only gotten the run-around.

for what is worth, i will be withdrawing today and i have a full ride from them.

I am just curious does Iowa's whole scholarship situation affect their need based aid allocations at all? or are need factors simply factored in to determine who gets scholarships and who doesn't? I never got a chance to talk to anyone about this yet.

publiuspublicola wrote:Just withdrew today. Hopefully one of you will get my $$$!

Your money doesn't even exist (apparently)!

But thanks! lol

Well, briefly reading above, they aren't allocating partial scholarships. Mine was a full ride, so someone could still get that??

I guess they assumed people would withdraw, so they handed out more than they have kind of counting on people turning down the offer. However, I SUPPOSE if ENOUGH people turn down the full rides (wink wink), then they might have some money to hand out some additional aid.

vlienj24 wrote:I am just curious does Iowa's whole scholarship situation affect their need based aid allocations at all? or are need factors simply factored in to determine who gets scholarships and who doesn't? I never got a chance to talk to anyone about this yet.

According to the fin aid office, need based scholarships and merit based scholarships are both allocated as recruiting scholarships. If you didn't get a scholarship, or aren't awarded one by April 1, you don't get anything.

April 1st. But if you have a good reason they'll extend it until April 15th.

So, in other words, they don't know exactly how many people will withdraw until after April 1.

Which basically means that they only estimate that there won't be any scholarship money left afterwards. If more people withdraw than they expect, they might have some scholly money all of a sudden.

Who knows, maybe more people applied to Iowa as a safety this year. Every school out there seems to think this year is going to be their best class ever by far, but there's only a finite amount of students out there with certain LSAT scores and GPAs. Applicants are only up 4% this year, according to Dean Pless of Illinois. Applications are up over 7%, though, so people are simply applying to more schools. This means there will be more withdrawls, as well, unless all of the extra applications were to reach schools where everyone was rejected.

Well, I definitely think they are trying too boost their LSAT median, given the fact they are handing out a lot of full rides to high LSAT scorers. It has always been a mystery to me why Iowa is so high ranked, given its relatively lower LSAT median for a T30 school. I suspect it has a lot to do with their library, and possibly their legal writing program/clinics (although I admit I have no idea what actually goes into consideration for law school rankings, aside from LSAT/GPA medians).

Well, I definitely think they are trying too boost their LSAT median, given the fact they are handing out a lot of full rides to high LSAT scorers. It has always been a mystery to me why Iowa is so high ranked, given its relatively lower LSAT median for a T30 school. I suspect it has a lot to do with their library, and possibly their legal writing program/clinics (although I admit I have no idea what actually goes into consideration for law school rankings, aside from LSAT/GPA medians).

It considers, among other criteria, acceptance rate, job prospects, assessment scores by professors, deans, lawyers, and judges, LSATs and GPAs, etc. The GPA and LSATs obviously matter, but so do some of the other factors. As more and more schools game the rankings by throwing lots of money at high-number candidates, Iowa, with a more holistic approach will fall (as it has) but not much, because it is buoyed by its other strengths.

Overall, I think that Iowa's slippage in rankings is largely meaningless, as it hasn't fallen far, and the USNWR rankings are hugely flawed anyway (for more, see Sunstein, Leiter, etc.).

Jerome wrote:Overall, I think that Iowa's slippage in rankings is largely meaningless, as it hasn't fallen far, and the USNWR rankings are hugely flawed anyway (for more, see Sunstein, Leiter, etc.).

Ultimately, this is my thought as well. If a school drops from 22 to 26 or 28, it doesn't really matter. It's still the same school, it didn't actually get any worse, and it is still going to carry the same reputation among employers.

Well, I definitely think they are trying too boost their LSAT median, given the fact they are handing out a lot of full rides to high LSAT scorers. It has always been a mystery to me why Iowa is so high ranked, given its relatively lower LSAT median for a T30 school. I suspect it has a lot to do with their library, and possibly their legal writing program/clinics (although I admit I have no idea what actually goes into consideration for law school rankings, aside from LSAT/GPA medians).

Dean Byrd indicated that he has been successful raising medians (and boosting rankings) in the past at previous schools. My guess is that he'll do a good job of stabilizing Iowa...

Hey guys,So about the scholarship thing, don't take too seriously what comes out of the fin aid. lady's mouth (chick who answers phone). She told me I wasn't nominated for a scholarship like 4 months ago, so I called Mr. Byrd to try and wiggle into some scholly money. He was like "What are you talking about, yeah you've been nominated for a scholarship, you should know by March 15th," and I looked like an dumbass thanks to Iowa's fin aid. office. I just think they have communication issues btw admissions and fin aid. I'd trust Mr. Byrd in this situation.

robin600 wrote:Hey guys,So about the scholarship thing, don't take too seriously what comes out of the fin aid. lady's mouth (chick who answers phone). She told me I wasn't nominated for a scholarship like 4 months ago, so I called Mr. Byrd to try and wiggle into some scholly money. He was like "What are you talking about, yeah you've been nominated for a scholarship, you should know by March 15th," and I looked like an dumbass thanks to Iowa's fin aid. office. I just think they have communication issues btw admissions and fin aid. I'd trust Mr. Byrd in this situation.